A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing
outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.
Good, but somewhat too literate adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel is nevertheless visually imaginative and features competent performances by Roth and Malkovich.
A psychiatrist, living in Vienna, enters a torrid relationship with a
married woman. When she ends up in the hospital from an overdose, an
inspector becomes set on discovering the demise of their affair.
From memory: a psychological tour de force, both fascinating and unnerving, definitely enhanced by the director's non-linear style of story-telling.
Halliwell (no star): "Weird and unsympathetic sex melodrama, presented with the disconnected style expected from this director as a series of flashbacks from the heroine's near-deathbed."
Maltin***1/2: "Mesmerizing melodrama triumphs over badly miscast male leads and occasional pretentiousness. Roeg's kinetic style brings the necessary passion to the oddball story...Russell is simply great, as is knockout background music from The Who, Keith Jarrett, and Billie Holiday."
A humanoid alien comes to Earth to get water for his dying planet, and he starts a high technology company to get the billions of dollars he
needs to build a return spacecraft.
Highly idiosyncratic science fiction tale with lots of pretension; wonderfully produced and photographed, with quite a few memorable scenes, but rather difficult to follow.
Halliwell*: "A weird piece of intellectual science fiction made weirder by longueurs of all varieties: obscure narrative, voyeuristic sex, pop music and metaphysics. Not an easy film or a likeable one, despite its great technical skill."
Maltin***1/2: "Highly original, fabulously photographed adaptation of Walter Tevis' classic fantasy novel is riveting for the first two-thirds, goes downhill toward the end. Still tops of its kind."
